14 Kentucky counties sue over mortgage-recording fee
A mortgage-recording service and financial institutions have schemed to avoid paying Kentucky counties millions of dollars in fees, 14 counties contend in a federal lawsuit.
In addition to depriving the counties of money, the conspiracy has shortchanged a fund used to make grants and loans for low-income housing, the lawsuit says.
The counties involved in the lawsuit are Boyd, Breathitt, Carter, Christian, Clark, Floyd, Franklin, Greenup, Johnson, Letcher, Magoffin, Mason, Pike and Warren.
They are suing Mortgage Electronic Registration System, or MERS, a company that operates an electronic clearinghouse for mortgage interests among members, and related business entities, shareholder companies and financial institutions.
The lawsuit lists two dozen defendants, including the U.S. government-sponsored lenders Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.
The complaint says that under state law, when one company transfers or sells a mortgage to another, the company receiving the interest has to pay a recording fee at the county clerk’s office
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Suing MERS will gain momentum as more municipalities and counties have the courage to tackle the banks and get on board. Losing legal standing opens the way for homeowners to take MERS out as trustee, beneficiary in their notes. The next step is to develop a homeowners class action that could effectively remove MERS authority to foreclose in the courts. Destruction of MERS would destroy bank authority to foreclose. Even now big lenders are anticipating this problem by avoiding formal foreclosure. They offer defaulting homeowners a few dollars to give up ‘deed-in-lieu-of,’ list their houses for a short sale. Owners continue to take care of the property until the short sale is effected. Excessive value is lost in this method, more than principal reduction. It devalues normal sales, destroys tax base, but banks seem not want to take the moral high ground and help homeowners keep homes.
Watch Frontline’s program. Even a slick coating of innocence gets across the enormous problem the banks are dealing with in who owns or has authority to foreclose. MERS is a construct established by banks to stand in the doorway. If MERS is exposed for the illegal entity it is, banks would be forced to make an effort to work out loans or forfeit collateralized support for their credit derivative products. Losing collateral means losing the right to foreclose. Frankly, homeowners need that leverage to stabilize the housing market..
When laws are violated? Courts see that the guilty (banks) forfeit freedom, money, property, goods, etc? Is it right to punish homeowners for banks’ wrongdoing? Why reward banks for bogus loans, prepay penalties, ARMs, extravagant fees not to mention gutting the global market so people who never defaulted lose their equity, down payments, equity, forced to walk away from an underwater loan through no fault of their own!
Our battle isn’t over. Down with MERS!!!
Bank of America did not modify my mortgage in 2010′ When I completed the making home affordable program…they demanded me to continue to continue to make payments…even though they increased my payments after taking over Country Wide…and again when I entered the program in 2010′
I was told that they haven’t received payments as well as my payments were going to FHA directly…”the hussle”…after losing a great deal of money and time..paying vampire attorneys and organizations for help…which they were all thieves.preying on the helplessness of my not knowing the real estate laws…I finally got a firm here in Atlanta, GEORGIA….FREEMAN& SAXTON…they have been a great help in getting Bank of America to get me in another trial payment plan…but , my home is only worth $35K-$40k…and Bank of America is saying I AM at $140K in my loan balance…that’s over 200% UNDERWATER, I was told last year August 2013′ by my account manager at Bank of America that I had a lean of my house against a Willie Norwood Jr.,
Guess what, that’s my father…whom I bought the house from in 2007’…
So, if that’s what stopped me from getting a principal reduction…when Michael Rebel & Associates was representing me after being paid over $3K
Who, I came to find out should not accepted my case or my money, because they are not licensed to practice in the state of GEORGIA…another story…be knowledgeable of the help you seek…
With the victory of the DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE IN AUGUST 2014′ over Bank of America…I AM for MERS BEING INVESTIGATED AS WELL…I received a “DISCHARGE DEED OF SECURED DEBT” in October 2012′. After checking the court house records…I never saw Country Wide or Bank of America on my file dating from 2007′ to 2012′ but GEORGIA is a right to know state and if a transfer of DEED occurs the new owner(s) have 30-60 days to submit ownership to the county’s clerk’s office were the house/instrument is located…I had a great deal of hardships that were ignored by bank of America..and attorney or organization I paid before FREEMAN, SAXTON& ASSOCIATES
DID NOT PUT THE MONEY I PAID IN A TRUST ACCOUNT…JUST LIKE THE BANKS…THEY PUT THE CASHED CHECKS IN THEIR POCKETS…AND TURNED THEIR BACKS ON ME…
I AM IN NEED OF A REFUND AND HELP BY REMOVING MERS…AND, FORCING THE LAWS THAT HAVE BEEN BROKEN BY THE WEALTHY BANKS AND THEIR WEALTHY SUPPORTERS…IF THEY BROKE THE LAW AND AGREEMENTS THEN WHY SHOULD TAXPAYERS BE FORCED TO BAIL THEM OUT AGAIN…TO MANY FAMILIES WERE DESTROYED, CHILDREN HAD TO BE UP-ROOTED…ELDERLY HAVE LOST THEIR HOMES…PEOPLE LOST THEIR LIVES BEHIND THE GREED OF A FEW…THE CITIZENS OF THE UNITED STATES NEED THE SUPPORT THE MOST…WE GAVE THE BANKS A CHANCE AND THE PLAYED WITH OUR MONEY AND OUR LIVES…REMEMBER IT WAS THE TAXPAYERS MONEY THE THEY WERE GIVEN FOR A BAILOUT AND TO HELP STRUGGLING HOMEOWNERS/TAXPAYERS…WHOM THEY CHEATED…WOW!!! SOUNDS LIKE A NEW CRIME SYNDICATE/MOB. “RICO ACT” VIOLATED
The banks designed MERS to avoid having to pay recording fees to transfer ownership to the new owner and servicers. They were dealing deeds in packages or credit derivatives. They did not think in terms of individual deeds on real estate as state laws required in all states. This was a shuffle game using real estate as collateral with the right to foreclose and resell. When it was designed property values were escalating and the idea was that value would remain consistent for the most part and if one house did not live up to the ideal it didn’t matter because the risk was diversified over a large package. They designed MERS as criteria to fit their shuffle in and the big banks backed it. It is comprised of big banking members. Think like if you have all the blanks marked in the right places and the system took your loan it went into the huge pile of loans and the risk was spread over the group. This is a simplified description but you get the idea. This is why it sounds simple to pull one loan out and modify it on an individual basis but in reality it is NOT possible and the banks knew this. This is why almost NO loans got modified. They went through the process of letting you think they would or were only to continue foreclosing, knowing it would not be modified. In fact they really did not know WHO owned the loans or where they were in the mix. It might be a pension plan in Australia or Sweden.
IN FACT >>>>>>> the few modifications that I know were ACTUALLY DONE, were those where the bank HAD NO legal standing or the paperwork was blatantly fraudulent or bogus. In judicial states like Florida where the foreclosure goes before the court this could be and was a problem because when the bank sued for foreclosure they had to have their paper trail intact. It wasn’t, in many cases, and they got caught with their britches down if some smart lawyer came along and challenged them. Otherwise the courts just rubber stamped the foreclosure and let it fly.
In states like Tennessee we were actually worse because non-judicial states were just sitting ducks for bad paper work. The foreclosure process is automatic and if you default your house is sold on the courthouse steps not inside in front of a judge. Many flaws, frauds and errors are covered by this automatic foreclosure process and the banks know this.
The reason the government got such a huge settlement out of the banks was because government lawyers knew what the banks did and how it was done. They weren’t interested in criminal charges. Jail time does not put money into anyone’s pocket so the government demanded a little payola from the banks to fluff up the government coffers; ALL IN THE BEST INTERESTS OF DEFRAUDING THE POOR TAXPAYER. Hogwash!
All parties got what they could and the man on the street or in his foreclosing house got NOTHING but a fart in the wind in a promise of modification that was never realized or intended. It was so much spin.
Big bankers flew into Washington in their jets and endured a few hand slaps by Congress. ADMONITIONS; BANKERS SMIRKED, CONGRESS WINKED BACK and everyone put a little money in their pockets from the banking industry for their campaigns and all goes on as before.
My family and I went through 3 lawsuits and never retained any one of the houses in question. One payment of $6000 was paid on a short sale to facilitate moving. Two are still in going no where lawsuits that realized money for the defendant bank’s lawyer while he sat on his tail and billed the bank. No modifications. Another party owns a house that has no registered deed of trust in over 12 years and they are trying to steal that one now without filing suit, which is what will have to happen in a non-judicial state when there is no deed of trust record that permits them to steal the house without having to go to court.
Think of little Nell and Simon Legree was it? Our government, political parties aside, let this happen to us and failed to fix it except to bail out the banks with our tax money and float them out to do it again. Oh yes, they paid a penalty and a big one but where is our cut? Where are our houses? The values still in the toilet for those who never defaulted. Houses sold in multi-parcel bundles like cord wood to out of state investors to rent back to us. Wait for it
WAIT FOR IT!
A second bubble burst when all the out of state investors that bought those rental house packages bubble burst and the derelict housings returns to taxpayers in the states and counties to clean up. Here we go again.
Incidentally, if you are still reading. . . Did the states that sued MERS, did any of them win? If so what did they win? Who paid and where did the money go? Did you see any of it?